


Humbled by the Stars

by cadmean



Category: Night In The Woods (Video Game)
Genre: Epistolary, Gen, Worldbuilding, small town life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-21 12:18:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17043602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cadmean/pseuds/cadmean
Summary: Once haunted, can a place be unhaunted?A compilation of excerpts chronicling the secret history of Possum Springs, occasionally commentated on and annotated through the years by [illegible].





	Humbled by the Stars

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Darkhymns](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darkhymns/gifts).



> Happy Yuletide!

** i: memory made perfect **

 

### From the Stars: Forgotten Folk and Fairy Tales from the Old Country

In the old days, before the legends of the world had come to be immortalized among them, a star fell from the sky. It burned through the air, and when it hit the earth down far below it shattered into uncountable pieces.

One of the pieces – not the largest, not the smallest, an entirely unremarkable piece – fell further yet, lodging itself deep into the bowels of the earth until it had gone so far down that not even the light of the sun could possibly reach it.

And because no light ever did shine down upon it, that thing that had once been a star grew twisted over the millennia. But even though it was only a piece of the star it held immense power within it, and as with all powerful things eventually people were drawn to it. They first built a well that echoed with the voice of the star-piece, and then a few houses around the well, and then the houses became a village that later became a town, and the well sang with the voice of the star-piece still.

Decades, centuries later, the mine that had reached even deeper than the well was closed up, and the song of the fallen star was no longer able to reach the town.

 

**Cultist:** BUT, DEAR INITIATE, LET ME TELL YOU HERE:  


**Cultist:** THAT ISN’T HOW IT HAPPENED. NOT REALLY.  


 

 

  


### The Breath of the Dead: Examining the Environmental Effects of Meteors on the Land They Crashed in. An Essay

[…] but what can be agreed upon is that for some reason scientists haven’t yet been able to explain properly, there is a strange correlation to be found between the site of a meteor’s impact and an increased likelihood of public unrest and straight-out riots among the people now living in that area.

Take Possum Springs in Deep Hollow Country, for example: samples drawn from the soil in a 50km radius around the town suggest that a meteor must have fallen there about 1.6 million years ago. In the grand scheme of things this isn’t a particularly long time, of course, but it is enough for debris from the scattered meteor to have utterly contaminated that layer of soil.

In Possum Springs, this contamination expresses itself through the town’s bloody history, going back to the very event that founded it. […] The two trappers, confronted with the harsh reality of the woman having died of exposure due to their neglect, carried her body to one of the deep crevices surrounding the area around the spring. They threw her lifeless form into it, thinking that they had successfully hidden any evidence of their crime; and while the town suddenly and quickly flourished, neither of the two trappers survived to see it through.

It is here that I would like to postulate that it was, in fact, the vapors emanating from that assortment of crevices – stretching all the way down to the layer of meteor-tainted soil – that killed all three. […]

 

**Cultist:** THERE ISN’T ANY REAL TRUTH TO THIS, EITHER.  


**Cultist:** BUT WOULD IT SURPRISE YOU IF I TOLD YOU THAT THIS VERSION  


**Cultist:** IS A GREAT DEAL CLOSER TO THE TRUTH THAN A LOT OF OTHERS HAVE GOTTEN, OVER THE YEARS?  


 

 

  


### Traditions of Deep Hollow Country and Surrounding Areas

And as for Harfest, well, what a curious little tradition that is! Going by name alone one would assume it to be a local variant of a harvest festival, perhaps even Thanksgiving; should you, dear reader, wander into a Deep Hollow Country town on the night of Harfest, however, you’d be well surprised by all the little ghosts and adorable monsters running around.

It should therefore be assumed that rather than being a variation on any single holiday, Harfest, as celebrated in Deep Hollow Country, simply smashes together a great many holidays all celebrated during the same general time: harvest festival (providing the name), Halloween (the costumes and activities of the night), as well as Thanksgiving (because your darling author was treated to some very nice turkey on her visit.)

What should also be taken into account is the historical play which is performed on the night of Harfest. Much like in a traditional Thanksgiving play, the local history is dramatized through some very heavy over-generalization.

In the play, two trappers find the spring that would later give the town its name, where they are soon accosted by a witch who[…]

 

**Cultist:** THE HARFEST PLAY ISN’T HOW IT HAPPENED EITHER, OF COURSE—  


**Cultist:** BUT IT IS THE VERSION OF EVENTS EVERYONE HAS DECIDED TO AGREE UPON  


**Cultist:** AND SO IT IS AS GOOD AS THE TRUTH NOWADAYS.  


**Cultist:** WE’LL USE IT AS THE BASIS FOR OUR TRUTH HERE, TOO.  


 

 

 

 

  


** ii: through blood-stained teeth **

### A Brief History of Possum Springs

Founded in 1795, the town of Possum Springs was quick to leave behind its origins as a trapper town. Scarcely twenty years later the mining operation had begun, and workers from the surrounding cities started to flock to the town in search of work. And while at first business flourished and people grew rich, as tends to happen when a new business venture is opened up, before long the seeds of discontent began to be sown.

Working hours got longer but the pay didn’t match. Conditions down in the mine grew worse; wages weren’t paid on time.

By 1870, said discontent finally came to a head, culminating in an all-out brawl between the miners of behalf of their leader, Darnel Glace, and the local mine boss[…]

 

**Cultist:** IF I TOLD YOU THAT I HAD A TOOTH HIDDEN AWAY IN ONE OF THE DRAWERS IN MY HOUSE  


**Cultist:** GIVEN TO ME BY MY GRANDMOTHER, GIVEN TO HER BY HER GRANDMOTHER  


**Cultist:** THEN I WOULD BE LYING.  


 

 

  


### Nameless—Missing—Search Abandoned: An Examination of Deep Hollow Country’s Startlingly High Number of Yearly Disappearances

Only a scant few years after its initial establishment in 1795, the budding settlement now called Possums Springs suffered its first major set-back. According to Hines & Fowl (2003), the area the settlement was built on as well as the lands immediately surrounding it became, after suffering through an uncharacteristically severe for the area earthquake, riddled with sinkholes.

Two people died to the sinkholes that year, one of them being the mayor of the town, Rubert Othswell, while the other was an unknown and unnamed vagrant who, according to the haphazardly-kept records from those days, had only wandered into town a few days prior. While the body of Othswell was recovered from the nearby moor, where the movement of the earth presumably eventually spit him back up, the body of the unnamed vagrant was never found.

Hines & Fowl postulate in their most recent publication (2004) that this is because there simply were no remains to find, linking the disappearance of the nameless vagrant to around 140 other such cases […]

 

**Cultist:** CAN YOU SEE US?  


**Cultist:** CAN YOU SEE THE TRUTH OF OUR EXISTENCE, HIDDEN BETWEEN THE LINES OF POSSUM SPRINGS’ LONG HISTORY?  


**Cultist:** LAID OUT LIKE THIS IT’S EASY, OF COURSE.  


**Cultist:** SOME OF THOSE GONE MISSING HAVE GENUINELY DISAPPEARED WITHOUT ANYONE KNOWING WHERE THEY’VE GONE, BUT OTHERS?  


**Cultist:** YOU AND I, WE KNOW EXACTLY WHERE THEY WENT.  


 

 

 

  
  


### [an excerpt from what appears to be a journal, untitled; dated to July 17th,1888]

—thought that’d be the last of it for a good while yet, but Ed wouldn’t have it. Said that with the town in such a dismal state, more sacrifices were necessary.

_Fucking hell, Skudder, what are you going to do, blow up the mine?_ I asked him.

I shouldn’t have, mind you.

Because Ed, little Ed Skudder who I remember waking up at night when we were kids and screaming for his mom, that little Ed, he went and did just that.

It all worked out in the end, of course, which makes it all the more infuriating. Pine and Harvey had long since been a thorn in Ed’s eye, so what did he do? Killed two birds with one stone, is what he did: he went on record stating that the mine bosses had neglected to inform Pine and Harvey of the pockets of natural gas that tended to form this deep in the mines. Managed to roll off the blame for the explosion onto those two poor souls, while also simultaneously implicating the bosses—but was it [illegible, smudged by water]

 

**Cultist:** I’D LIKE TO SAY OUR METHODS HAVE EVOLVED SINCE THEN, THAT WE’VE MATURED.  


**Cultist:** BUT HAVE WE, REALLY?  


**Cultist:** 112 KILLED, AND THE ONLY REASON WE HAVEN’T GONE ON TO DO IT AGAIN  


**Cultist:** IS BECAUSE THERE’S NOBODY WORKING IN THE MINES ANYMORE.  


**Cultist:**. . .  


**Cultist:** THEY SAY YOU SHOULDN’T SET YOURSELF ON FIRE TO KEEP OTHERS WARM.  


**Cultist:** BUT SET OTHERS ON FIRE TO KEEP THE MAJORITY WARM, AND TO KEEP THE TOWN RUNNING?  


**Cultist:** THAT’S A-OKAY, APPARENTLY.  


 

 

 

  
  


### [another page seeming to be torn from an old journal, handwriting the same as the previous one; dated to August 1st, 1889]

The governor came of course and gave a nice and neat little speech, and he dragged real important-looking inspectors along with him as well. And a mere one-and-a-half months after the strikes started, they came to an end: the bosses complied to our demands.

Not like they could do anything else, really, with those two little kids shot dead.

Didn’t know them. I didn’t know them and I’m glad for it, because even without having known them I feel more guilt for them than I ever could’ve thought possible. Over a hundred dead in that explosion a year ago, and where do I finally draw the line? Two little kids.

Tomorrow I’m going to confront Ed.

Tell him it’s time we stopped this mess.

Whatever’s down there in the hole in the mines, it’s not doing anything to help us.

 

**Cultist:** HERE, THEN, THE AWFUL TRUTH I’VE HAD TO COME TO TERMS WITH OVER THE YEARS:  


**Cultist:** SOMETIMES, THE SACRIFICES AREN’T ENOUGH.  


**Cultist:** SOMETIMES NOTHING CHANGES.  


**Cultist:** AND IF NOTHING CHANGES, THEN . . .  


 

 

  


### The Possum Springs Herald: August 1889 – Obituaries

Simon Reed, age 48, died on Monday, August 5th, 1889 in a freak accident inside the Possum Springs mines. Despite the heavy security owed to the governor’s visit, Mr Reed was able to enter the mine in what was, as his close friend Ed Skudder described, a drunken rage.

In the depths of the mines, once Mr Skudder had managed to catch up to him, Mr Reed reportedly physically assaulted Mr Skudder. In the following altercation, Mr Reed fell into an unsecured mineshaft and presumably died upon impacting with the ground below.

His body has not yet been recovered.

 

 

 

** iii: a rotted core will surely crumble **

 

### [several letters, all addressed to one Lauren Onkell of 24 Maple Street, Possum Springs, later of 177a Mullohand Drive, Bright Harbor; sender illegible]

Lauren—

I hope you’ve been able to find work elsewhere. Things have been getting leaner and leaner by the month over here, and I’m not sure how much longer I can hold down my job. The boss has it out for me, and no matter what I do he continues to dock my pay for the slightest infraction.

With the kids out of the house I think we’ll be alright, though.

Lots of love—

**Cultist:** WE WEREN’T ALRIGHT.  


 

 

  


Lauren—

The house is so quiet without you here. I miss you. I miss you I miss you I miss you.

That’s not to say I haven’t been productive, though! I feel like I’ve been making some real headway at the new job, and Dave from two houses down tells me that he’s got another thing lined up for me, should this one not work out after all. He’s a real nice fellow, that Dave! I’ve been meaning to take him up on his offers for a neighbourly dinner for a while now, and I suppose now that I’ve got steady working hours again I should make some time for him.

Love you lots—

**Cultist:** DID SHE ALREADY PLAN IT, AT THAT POINT?  


**Cultist:** WAS SHE MEETING WITH HER LAWYER, UP IN BRIGHT HARBOR?  


 

 

  


Lauren—

got your letter. We need to talk. Call me.

**Cultist:** IT WAS THE SHORTEST  


**Cultist:** AND SIMULTANEOUSLY THE LONGEST  


**Cultist:** PHONE CALL I’VE EVER MADE.  


 

 

  


Lauren—

the kids called. Said they’ve been talking to you already and they want to make sure that I know where they stand on this whole mess of a thing, too. They’re good kids. I think we raised them well, despite everything.

But I got fired again and I haven’t been able to get a hold of Dave for the job he’s been talking about yet, and—I don’t know what to do. I want to do right by you and the children, but I know that if I go into things as I am now it won’t work.

Call me. Please.

Yours—

**Cultist:** A CITY DOES NOT CRUMBLE OVER NIGHT  


**Cultist:** AND NEITHER DO RELATIONSHIPS.  


**Cultist:** BUT SOMETIMES  


**Cultist:** AT NIGHT, IN THAT EMPTY HOUSE  


**Cultist:** IT FELT AS IF EVERYTHING  


**Cultist:** HAD SUDDENLY  


**Cultist:** (INEVITABLY)  


**Cultist:** COLLAPSED.  


 

 

 

  


  


Lauren—

did you move again? I keep on sending letters but they’re all getting returned, unopened. The kids say they don’t know, but they’ve been returning my calls less and less, too.

Is everything alright?

. . . was it something I did?

**Cultist:** HAHA HA  


**Cultist:** HA.  


 

 

  


Lauren—

there is a hole in the world. Dave showed it to me.

It’s a small enough thing, funnily enough; if you saw it without knowing what it was you’d think that it was only yet another deep mineshaft dug into the bowels of the earth.

But it’s not. It’s so much more: it’s like someone took the darkness that hangs between the stars up in the sky and grafted it to the very bones of the earth itself; and Lauren, from that terrible void something is singing.

Dave said that there’s a thing – and old thing, a forgotten thing, a _very_ powerful thing – that lives at the very bottom of the hole at the heart of everything, and that it could help the town. He told me that whenever the town’s been in a bad way, the thing that’s down there would extend a helping hand—for a price.

And sure enough, I believe him that there’s something stuck down there at the bottom of that hole, but as to whether it can do anything to fix the situation we and the town are in . . . I just don’t know.

Call me when you get the chance.

 

**Cultist:** SHE NEVER CALLED.  


**Cultist:** AND I STILL DON’T KNOW.  


**Cultist:** BUT AT THIS POINT I’VE SACRIFICED ENOUGH TO IT  


**Cultist:** THAT IT BETTER BE DOING _SOMETHING_.  


 

 

  


  


### The Possum Springs Herald, date illegible – Section 2: Urgent News

After having been reported missing by her cousin and her grandmother, the Possum Springs police now welcomes any and all information as to the whereabouts of Lauren Onkell, gone missing while in town to visit family and her ex-wife. Though no longer a resident of Possum Springs, it is believed that Ms Onkell knows the area well enough to not have gotten lost, and so foul play must be considered.

The Chief of the police urges all citizens to come forward with any and all information they have.

  


 

**iv: something lingers **

 

### [a newspaper clipping, badly smudged; title illegible]

[…]ew sinkholes have opened up in the areas surrounding Possum Spring’s old mines, claiming several of the buildings lining the edge of town. The City Council has issued an advisory statement to all citizens, urging them to stay vigilant and to report any missing family members immediately.

So far, nine people have been officially declared missing, among them[…]

  


### The Possum Springs Herald, January 2020 – Section 2: Urgent News

Police investigations have yielded little new information so far in the disappearance of Starker Whitenall, age 19, who disappeared two days prior. Whitenall, who is said to have gone running off into the woods around town after a heated argument with his father, was last seen wearing a dark blue hoodie and bright yellow pants. 

Rumors as to whether this disappearance is in any way connected to that of Michelle Runa, 52, from three months ago have been neither confirmed nor denied.


End file.
